Raytheon Advances Ship Computing

Monday, February 22, 2010

Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) achieved another in a series of milestones for the Zumwalt-class destroyer program with the successful Total Ship Computing Environment (TSCE) Release 6 software specifications review. Zumwalt’s TSCE is an advanced, open systems architecture that provides a scalable platform for cost-efficient delivery of new mission capability while capitalizing on the reuse of millions of lines of code from existing Navy programs. The system delivers a new level of Mission Systems Integration and automation. As such, it is a primary driver for the 60 percent reduction in manning for the Zumwalt-class destroyer versus the requirement for today’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.

“The success of our spiral development methodology for this program continues, ensuring that systems are validated as mature before progressing to full development,” said Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems’ (IDS) Bill Marcley, vice president of Total Ship Mission Systems. “With this review, all of the Zumwalt software requirements are complete, more than 80 percent of software coding is complete, and the program remains within budget and on schedule.”

TSCE consists of six software releases, each version adding new features and robustness to the ship’s mission capabilities. Release 6 is implementing more than 25,000 software requirements and will raise the total number of delivered lines of software code for Zumwalt to more than 9 million.

The Zumwalt-class destroyer will be the first in a family of surface combatant ships that provides unmatched capability to the U.S. Navy. The advanced technologies developed for the destroyer can be reused on future and modernized platforms. The benefits of Zumwalt’s systems commonality are already being realized by the application of the Dual Band Radar on the new Ford-class aircraft carrier (CVN 78), as well as the application of the TSCE infrastructure for the USS Nimitz (CVN 68) and USS San Antonio (LPD 17) technology refresh efforts. The systems and software engineering approach used on Zumwalt yields an architecture well suited for capability enhancements to counter emerging threats. Additionally, it provides affordable new capabilities that address future mission requirements such as sea-based ballistic missile defense.